


K is for Karma

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 06:02:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1808020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jessica has spent the last two years awaiting punishment for what she did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	K is for Karma

Jessica had known that she needed to be punished for what she had done. And every day that she had to go through the motions, plastering Rosewood with Missing posters with Alison’s face on them, having to endure the sympathy of her friends, the time she and Kenneth took part in the press conference, and all the time Jessica knowing that she had buried Alison in their own garden, was a form of punishment in itself.

She hadn’t known what to make of it the day Hanna Marin called and told her that Alison was still alive and she had seen her on the Marins’ patio. For a moment, Jessica wondered if Hanna somehow knew what she had done and was saying that as a way of torturing her, or of trying to make her confess. But she’d decided that couldn’t be so. How could Hanna possibly have known? No, it had to be some kind of hallucination triggered by her use of the Ouija board with the Vanderwaal girl. Or maybe even just some kind of sick prank, although that wasn’t like the Hanna she thought she knew. Unfortunately, Kenneth had been in the room when Jessica had taken that call, and he’d heard enough that she’d had to tell him what had been said. She’d managed to convince him that Hanna’s story gave her hope that Alison was still alive. Instead, it had given her hope for a moment that if Hanna was taken seriously, the search for Alison would focus on finding her alive and no one would consider searching the garden for her body. Then Jessica had become angry at herself all over again for having dared to think for one moment that she could evade punishment. 

The St Germain family dug up their garden three days later and found where Jessica had buried Alison. And Jessica knew that this was her form of punishment. She watched as various people were named as suspects in Alison’s murder – Toby Cavanaugh, Ian Thomas, Garrett Reynolds – and part of her struggled with her conscience as she did. The Cavanaugh boy was trouble, everyone realised that when he got sent away to reform school, so Jessica didn’t worry too much over him. Hillary Reynolds had approached her in the store one time, not long after Garrett’s arrest, pleading with Jessica to do something as Garrett was innocent. Jessica had been able to do nothing but turn round and walk out. One by one, each of the named suspects had been exonerated, and Jessica had been unable to do nothing but wait for the knock at the door that she was dreading, that someone knew what she had done.

In one way it might have been a relief to speak out. But at the same time Jessica knew she could never tell anyone who really struck Alison. She had made her choice when she buried Alison; now she was going to have to live with that for the rest of her life. And she couldn’t say that she would not have done the same thing if given the chance to do things over again.

Jessica couldn’t let it be known who had really attacked Alison. She had done what she had to do. But there was one question that she was never going to be able to stop asking herself.

If Jessica had acted differently all those years ago, how much of this could have been avoided?

She had thought that it was for the best if Jason never knew who his real father was. As far as the world was concerned, Kenneth DiLaurentis was his father, and Peter Hastings was nothing more than a family friend living across the street. But now she wondered how things would have been different if she had been upfront with Jason all the time. He’d have had to have lived with this knowledge for the rest of his life, but at least Alison would never have been able to hold the knowledge over his head.

It was as a result of Jessica’s actions all those years ago that she had been brought to this position. And she had always known that she would have to face some sort of punishment. But she never thought it would be this.

The day Jessica found out that Alison really was alive, she was sure it was only a matter of time before Alison told her story of how Jessica had buried her. The punishment she had evaded for so long was upon her. When the knock had come to her door, she had been sure it was Barry Maple or one of his co-workers come to arrest her. Instead, there had been no one on the doorstep. Puzzled, she’d turned away to walk back into the house, only to be hit with a heavy object on the back of her head.

Jessica came to to find herself lying in a hole with dirt being shovelled on top of her, and she finally understood. This was not punishment so much as karma.


End file.
